


A Prickly Ball Cactus

by GreenRevolutionary



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Basketball, F/M, Gen, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, No Beta, Reader Insert, Soulmates AU, We Die Like Men, so idk how it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenRevolutionary/pseuds/GreenRevolutionary
Summary: Soulmate AU between Midorima Shintarou and the reader.
Relationships: Midorima Shintarou/Reader, Midorima Shintarou/You
Kudos: 30





	A Prickly Ball Cactus

**Author's Note:**

> So, I know there shouldn`t be need for any sort of referee for a two-on-two basketball game but I wrote it in there and by the time I realized that I was already too far gone with the fic to want to fix it. If you are looking for accurate descriptions of basketball that is not the work for you, sorry to say to. But if you are looking for a tsundere and shitty puns, it might offer a thing of two.
> 
> Also there might be a decline of grammar and increase of typos as the fic goes on, I did my best but those things just happen.

Soulmates are an interesting thing. There are some who believe they do not exist and the work put into a relationship is what makes someone your true soulmate. There is no perfect person out there to just complete you. You felt inclined to agree with this divide of opinions. “Soulmate” was just a person one would choose to spend their best and worst times with, there was no need to have someone like that in your life but there was want. The want to have someone accompany you throughout life.  
It was just a name for the person. And the mark of them on your heart just marked the existance of a someone who might have the potential to understand and love every aspect of you. Just potential, no guarantee.

You stood in front of the mirror, eyes boring into the mark on your heart. A large cactus with no blooms to show at all. Usually the plants describing the mate were flowers with closed petals that opened when you met the person – when the love “bloomed” so to say. It was really quite ironic to get a cactus, but it didn’t bother you. A more negative person would say it meant there were no blooms so there would be no love, just some prick ready to hurt you. You saw it rather that you had to win the love of that special person in a hard way, maybe they were just quite a closed-off person and it would just take more effort to make everything work out just fine and dandy. 

You tore your eyes from the mirror and continued to get dressed. It was quite warm outside so you hoped just a t-shirt would be enough. You looked at the jacket on your bed, contemplating for a moment. Eh, if it got too cold later you could “borrow” Kise`s, the boy was basically a free space heater anyways and didn’t mind when he had to give his clothes to you. Why he bothered to take jackets everywhere he went when he wasn’t cold was unknow to you.

A quick look at the watch made you hurry outside and to the park where Kise was already waiting, a big smile appearing on his face when he noticed you. You raised your hand and gave a small wave, smiling back at him. Him being so happy all the time was one of the things you loved about him, the way you didn’t have to really think about anything when the two of you spent time together or how you could say whatever came to your mind without any fear of judgement. By this time he really was your best friend, you supposed.

“Y/n-cchi!” he pulled you into a quick hug, knocking the breath out of you.

“Heya,” you choked out into his shoulder. “What did you have in mind for today? You said it was important?”

“Yup,” he looked at his phone “well, depends on how you define ´important`, really.”

“Uhm,” you showed your hands into the pockets of your jeans and looked at him warily. Who knows what he had come up with this time. “I would define it as something so urgent I had to keep an entire day void of other plans because it couldn’t be done any other time.”

“Ah,” Kise stopped for a moment. “Would you consider a chance to get free lunch as important?”

“Ummmm….. depends on circumstances but might be, and I´m always game when we are on the topic of free food,” you shrugged as you started to walk after him. You hadn`t had anything all too important to do that day so you were all for spending time with Kise, you just wished he would stop calling all things “important” all the time. That way you would not know when something actually was so and not just one of his exaggerations.

“Yeah, you don`t even have to do much. We´re meeting up with few former teammates of mine for a game and we had a bet whoever wins would treat everyone else to lunch. You just need to act as referee,” he made an OK sign with his fingers and beamed at you.

“I mean, sure, why not. I like basketball,” you shrugged. “Wait, if you lose I don’t have to help you pay, right? I´m not actually part of your team as a referee so my food is on you guys.”

“Aww, why are you like this?” Kise pouted. “No belief in my play at all, only food in your brain.”

“Mate, how long have you known me?” you gently elbowed him in the ribs. “There is nothing in my mind except food at all times. And I know very well how good you are, I have played against you in the past. I just have to make sure of the ground rules you know, since these are your teammates. I don’t expect them to just lay down and hand over the victory to you.”

“Why can`t you just say `I believe in you Kise, you are awesome, you can do anything`?” 

“Fiiine,” you rolled your eyes. “When you win I`ll say that…before all of your games for a month.”

“Three months.”

“Six weeks.”

“Two months and I´ll get you ice cream,” he held out his hand and you shook it.

“You´ve got a deal,” you laughed when he cheered loudly and hugged you. The two of you had reached the park where some people were waiting under basketball hoops. “But that`s only if you win, okay?”

“I`m definitely going to, I have a cool teammate for today,” he leaned closer and whispered the next part to you. “Don`t ever tell him I actually said that. His head is already big enough.”

“Which one?” your eyes skimmed over the three people talking.

“Green one.”

“Gotchu,” you gave a small nod and feigned an overly serious expression as you held out your pinkie to loop it with his. No matter what happens to the society, we should always make important promises that way. It gives them a sort of gravitas.

“Hellooooo!!” Kise called loudly and you pulled your head away from him to escape the sound. The hell, Kise? Some of like the ability of hearing and would like to keep it as long as possible. Your heart skipped a few beats from the shock of the noise, it hurt a bit to be fair and you made a mental note to kick him later for it. Not now, because you wanted to leave as good as an impression on the people in front of you.

“Hi,” you gave a small smile. “I´m Y/n.” you fought the urge to step back a little, Kise had not warned you that his friends would be so tall and it made you slightly anxious. Especially the one right in front of you who had red hair somewhere where his head was. 

“That`s Kagamicchi and Kurokocchi,” Kise made quick introductions and you connected the stories you had heard of them to the actual people in front of you. One of your eyebrows quirked as you remembered the day Kise had called you, crying because of a practice match. You could believe such thing to be done by Kagami, since he seemed athletic and to be frank, little scary but not the one called Kuroko. If anything, he was as nonthreatening as possible, you had a little trouble noticing him even as he was standing by you.

“And that`s Midorimacchi,” Kise motioned to the green-haired man who had come a little closer. “We played together in middle school, Kurokocchi as well.”

“Nice to meet all of you,” you smiled brightly, determined to be as nice as possible if these were people your best friend got along with. And thus, ignored the little thump-thump your heart made when you looked at Midorima. You didn’t lay all your hopes on soulmates but you also did not want to develop a weird crush on a guy Kise had once described as `number one conceited jackass` even if he had taken the words back later to give the title to someone else.

“It`s nice of you to be the referee today, sorry if its any bother,” Kuroko said quietly and damn if you did not want the anime hearteyes-effect to take place the moment. At least so far he seemed like the best behaved friend Kise had and you could only hope some of it would rub off on the blond.

“Ah, no bother, I`m happy to be of help if I can,” you felt a little awkward, having done nothing yet.

“Yep-yep,” Kise had his arm around your shoulders again. “Also they make the whole bunch here a little prettier so that’s a plus.” You died a little inside and gave up the polite act just to elbow him in the ribs at the remark.

It was only a moment before the awkwardness you felt had passed and the game started up. It wasn`t all that difficult to check the points and call them out when the game got a little rough after you had gotten used to the fast movements of the players. It gave you a little free time to look at the players themselves, especially one of them. You couldn`t help but feel a little warm every time your eyes landed on Midorima during the play. Especially since his today`s lucky item, small skull made of clay, was in your hand. It hadn’t seemed safe enough to him to put it with the rest of his things and you didn´t mind holding it for him.

The whole thing with “lucky item” seemed a bit ridiculous to you, the player`s abilities should not change whether a certain thing is near them or not. But a part of the play was calmness of mind and you supposed these things were just his way of finding that calm, sort of like a safety blanket. And who were you say what was lucky and not, you were certain there were things you did that held no meaning to anyone besides you and looked funny from the side, that does not mean you should stop doing them.

The game was supposed to go on to 30 points and both teams of two were already over 20, Kagami and Kuroko leading with two points. It was so only for minutes though, as the two were good but not enough to beat two players from the Generation of Bigheads (your name to it was different but given the way Kise had described them you felt it was somewhat deserved) who had good chemistry despite their differences. The game went on for another 10 minutes or so before the thirty point mark came up, you stuck two fingers into your mouth and whistled sharply.

“31-28,” you called out with cheer, bouncing the skull in your hand up and down. Maybe you should get one of these for your room, it would be a good decorating element.

“Yayyy,” Kise pounced on you, knocking the breath out of you again and making you lose your balance a little. “Say it say it say it,” he pestered when he let go of you.

“No, it was supposed to be before your other matches,” you argued a little while Kagami and Kuroko seemed to argue over a place to go and eat. They did owe the three of you a lunch after all.

“And now as well,” the blond demanded with a cheerful expression.

“Ugh, fiiiiine,” you groaned and raised the skull in front of your face, moving it a little so it would look like it was saying the words. “I believe in you Kise, you are awesome, you can do anything.”

“If you make all your friends do that for you I am surprised you have any left,” Midorima was standing next to Kise when you lowered the skull. Your cheeks flushed bright pink, you hadn`t thought he would hear you.

“So am I, but somebody needs to feed his ego,” you sighed with a smile and handed the lucky item over. It didn’t seem to bring that much luck to you, you thought with a wry smile when your skin felt too hot again. 

“Hey!” 

“I have next two months to suffer so you deserve it,” you nudged Kise with your shoulder. He wasn´t actually bothered, he almost never was. He knew all to well you meant your words in jest.

“Two months?”

You explained the situation to Midorima with some defeat in your voice. You had known this was the likely outcome and yet you had still made the promise so this was your own fault, really. But the call of ice cream had been too strong to avoid. All you had to do was hope he didn´t have many games coming up the next two months.

“But you two were really good,” you gave some sincere praise since you were on that wave. “Kise, you´ll have to help me work on the three-pointers again some time. These were really cool. You know, throwing it from so far away and still hitting the mark.” 

You didn´t even notice the small blush that appeared on Midorima`s face at your words. On one side he was glad you called his signature move cool, but on the other he was slightly annoyed you would have to turn to Kise to ask for help. The blond was annoying him today even more than usual, despite their mutual victory. The way he stood right next to you, his arms around you as the three of you talked. He couldn´t really explain it but he felt something along the lines of jealousy because of you. Which was ridiculous as he had met you just an hour ago or so. But you had called his skull cool. And looking at you made his chest feel tight and he sort of liked the feeling.

“It pains me to say so but the broccoli over here would be a much better teacher than me,” Kise pretended to be in pain in a dramatic way and Midorima decided he liked him a little better now. “About that at least.”

“Ah, I mean, obviously,” you bumbled. “But um, I wouldn`t want to impose, I´m sure you have much better things to do. I sort of suck at basketball,” you wanted to kick Kise a little. Yes, you would have liked for Midorima to teach you but wasn`t this a little forward? Just because Kise never felt embarrassed didn´t mean you could be the same.

“The `obviously` part hurts a little, but okay,” the blond grumbled. “What`s taking these two so long?” his attention was pulled over to where Kagami and Kuroko were still arguing and walked over to them, leaving you alone with Midorima.

“It didn’t actually hurt him all that much,” you said with a grin. “He is just possibly the biggest diva I have ever met. Um, anyways, if you really wouldn`t mind helping me some evening…?”

“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” but his heart might, Midorima thought when his heart skipped a small beat because of your smile that appeared.

“Really? Brilliant!” you fumbled around your pockets until you got your phone and handed it to him. “Could you give me your number and then we can talk when you have time? You probably have practice all the time as well right?”

“Not all the time,” he was typed his number into your phone and handed the device back. “I have time in the evenings and weekends.”

“Would tomorrow be too soon then?” you hoped you didn´t sound annoying, that would probably take a pretty big chunk out of his weekend just to spend with you. “I mean, if you have free time?”

“Tomorrow would be good,” maybe he needed a heart replacement, he couldn’t help but wonder. The current one he had seemed to have all sorts of problems as of late.

“Great, and…” you typed something on your phone. “Now you should have my number as well,” he opened the message and saw a small broccoli waving at him. It seemed you had about the same sense of humour Kise had. Midorima didn´t know yet if it would be a blessing or a curse.

The rest of the group walked over to you two, finally having decided where to get the lunch at and the rest of the time went by in a flurry. It was quite nice, the boys talked about basketball most of the time which came as a no surprise. You were fairly certain they even dreamed about the sport. There was also a mix of stories about some old games thrown in which made you smile. By the time they started analysing game strategies you looked at your phone and noticed two hours had gone by and you needed to start going home. 

“Eh? Already?” you nodded lightly and stood up. “Want me to send you home?” Kise asked, ready to stand up if needed but you could tell he didn`t really want to.

“Nah I`m fine, but if you don`t mind, I would take this,” you tapped the jacket on the back of his chair. “It`s bit chilly already.”

“Noo…” he whined, “you still haven`t given me back the last one. If you continue like this I won´t have anything to wear soon,” but he still handed you the jacket which you pulled on with a victorious smile.

“I have seen your closet and I believe I can continue all my bad habits for quite a long time before we have that problem.”

“That just sounds like you have no plan of giving any of my clothes back,” Kise stood up to hug you and you shrugged.

“Find my soulmate, I´ll start stealing theirs and leave you alone.”

“Aaalright, I get the hint, I´ll buy more clothes,” he groaned and you said goodbye with a smile on your face. The moment you were out of the room and Kise had sat back down, Kuroko looked at him with a puzzled look.

“What did they mean with that? Aren´t you..?”

“Nah,” Kise raised his hands. “Definitely not, we´re just friends is all.”

“Hm.”

It hadn’t looked the way to them but it wasn´t a topic to interest them for a long and before a minute had passed they were back to discussing the strategies.

\-----

When you got back home you threw the jacket over the back of your chair where three others already rested. Kise was right, you really should start giving his clothes back sometime. But his clothes were sort of nice and comfy and he didn´t mind you borrowing them, even if he whined sometimes. You sighed and made a note to take the jackets back the next time you went over to his place. You were quite aware of the fact what you were doing was more along the lines something would do to their boyfriend and it didn´t seem fair to continue.

Pulling your t-shirt over your head, something caught your eye in the mirror. The cactus over your heart had grown heaps bigger, it had round growths all over it and it had three flower buds as well. These were still closed, but somehow they had appeared. You held back a gasp as your fingers touched the plant engraved in your skin. You hadn´t noticed when it had grown so much, how typical of you. Of course. You were fairly certain the one responsible for the plant was Midorima, since it had been him who had been making your heart beat crazy that day.

A ping of your phone made you snap out of the trance, to cover the mark up again with pyjamas. You grabbed the phone from the jacket pocket and opened messages.

Did you get home alright?

Aw, that was sort of adorable, you looked at the message and for the first time felt the mark on you heat up a little. So that was how it felt when it grew. You would have to remember the feeling. For the future.

Yes. Just got home. You guys finished already?

You sat down on your bed and stared at the screen, aware you needed to go soon to babysit your brother for the night. But he was five already, so he could stand to be a few moments alone, right? Especially since you were just in the next room and had hidden everything that could be used to set fires before.

Not yet.

So he was just sitting there with his friends and texting you. You looked away from the screen and covered your smile with the back of your hand. You definitely didn`t mind the feeling that came with that thought. Phone pinged again and you looked down.

Need to talk about something tomorrow.

Ah, fuck. There it came already. Even if you had found the soulmate, there was always the awkwardness of whether they were even interested in the whole thing and also how the whole thing would continue. Would there be a relationship or….? You shook your head. It was too early to be thinking of all that.

Of course.

You pressed send and threw the phone on your bed to go and check up on your brother. Luckily nothing in the kitchen was on fire yet but there was a small pile of kindling made of your math notes on the table. You threw the pile away and set the little brat down in front of the TV – also known as a free babysitter.

\-----

The next day you arrived to the park a bit earlier than planned. You hadn´t really slept well that night and were functioning mainly thanks to coffee. You had thought of calling the whole thing off before since your aim was off from the lack of sleep anyways and you doubted you would learn much, being awkward and nervous.

You shook your head to clear it and sighed, picking up the ball you had brought along with you and walked a little further from the hoop. You tried to take in the form you had seen from Kise a few times and just as you were about to throw there was a voice behind you.

“You`re holding it wrong,” your head snapped around just to see Midorima standing there. 

“Ah, might be,” you chuckled awkwardly. He stepped closer and corrected the way your fingers were gripping onto the orange sphere.

“See, um,” he seemed to realize what he was doing and let go of your hands. “You should have better control of the throw now.”

“Thanks,” you still really wanted him to teach you but for that to happen it seemed you needed to get rid of the tension between you two. “So um, the thing you wanted to talk about. The soulmate-thing, right?” He seemed to tense a little but gave a curt nod.

“So, no pressure on you from my side, okay,” you smiled a little. “If you are interested in it and all.”

“Yes. Yes I am,” the words were a little choked. “If you are. I would have said something yesterday but phone didn´t seem the right way and to be honest, I didn´t really notice it before you were already gone.” He patted the place on his chest where you assumed `it` was. 

“Same for me,” you smiled a bit. “I noticed when I got home yesterday and it had all grown up on me. And I meant it by the way, we can take this thing slow and all.”

“I would like that as well,” you reached out your hand to take a hold of his and even that seemed to make him blush a little. “But if you don´t mind my asking, what flower did you get?”

“Heh, I`ll show if you do,” you pulled the collar of your shirt down a little to show off the cactus that was now taking up most of your chest with its small growths and even a bloom opening up around your collarbone. You couldn´t really show him the whole thing, being in the middle of park and all but it was more than enough to identify the plant. Your soulmate smiled in just the slightest.

“I assume its fitting,” you shrugged and let go of it. “I like it a lot to be honest.”

“Its…I would have liked for it to be…ah its… I like it,” Midorima fumbled with the words which must have been the first time. Somehow you didn´t feel like he liked it all too much.

“You don`t like it?” you were a little hurt.

“No its just… since its basically what I am, I wish I would be…more beautiful, for you,” you bit your lip when he looked to the side, face red to the roots of his hair. It wasn`t that he didn´t like it then. You chuckled and set the ball down on the ground. 

“I like it, very much actually,” you took a few steps so you could look him in the eye. “And its beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as…” he sighed and pulled his t-shirt up a little to uncover vines and vines of tiny blue flowers that covered most of his stomach already and kept growing even under your eyes. “These are daisies. I looked them up.”

“`course you did,” you shook your head with a small smile on your lips. You could already tell you would grow to love him very much if he continued to act this way. Very much indeed. But there would be time for that.


End file.
